Giggle

Organizing Ideas

Every year after the holidays I get the organizing bug. Okay, so perhaps I always have organizing on my mind; however, after the holidays is when it peaks. Perhaps it is the thought of putting away the Christmas tree ornaments and holiday decor that does it. It could also be that all organizing items go ON SALE after Christmas and in January as well. So if you are looking to get yourself organized January is an excellent time to pick a project or room to put in order because many of the supplies to get yourself organized are on sale. Hey, it's the perfect excuse!

I love to look at organizing sites, magazines and so forth to give me ideas to change up how I organize things around my own house. I thought I would share a few of the ideas I've found that you might want to try.

One quick and easy area to organize without purchasing supplies is your linen cabinet or closet.

Overhaul your linen closet: store bed linen sets inside one of their own pillowcases and there will be nor more hunting through piles for a match. 

Do you have issues with folding sheets? My mom and Grandma taught me how to fold sheets a long time ago and it happens to be the same way Martha Stewart does it. Here's a step-by-step photo guide from Martha Stewart:

I saw this next idea and it is simply a brillant way to store bags underneath a bathroom sink:

Re-use a wet-wipes containter to store plastic bags. I love reusing my Target bags for those small bathroom/bedroom garbage cans. Don't have kids? Well wet-wipes are excellent to have on hand for the car. Purchase a container for your car and when it's done use for your bags. OR purchase the container and pull the wet-wipes out and place in a zip-lock bag and place in your glove box and then use the container as above.

I have a plastic rubber-maid bin to organize my wrapping paper. However, it does not accomodate ALL of my wrapping paper. I have some rolls which are longer/taller and do not fit in the bin. The space on the top doesn't fit all my bows, ribbon and tape. I saw this and thought ingenious!

Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling (in a closet or the basement) rather than cluttering up the floor. You can get a smaller storage bin to store the bows, ribbon and tape and place on a shelf in the same closet.  My only issue with this method is the wrapping paper can get dusty; but it is just a small issue.

I have little containers in my bathroom drawers to store my bobby pins, however, inevidentally they end up on the bottom of the drawer because the container spills.

Use a magnetic strip to store bobby pins, barettes, tweezers and clippers. Apply to a vanity door or to the inside of a drawer. Viola at your finger tips!

I saw this one and I'm not sure if I entirely like this one but I thought I would share as you might.

Apply a velcro strip to a wall to store all those stuffed lovies up and off the floor.

If you really want to be anal you can organize and lable your cords:

Bread tags make the perfect labels. Not sure if I would go to this extreme to label things. But heck - go for it! You might want to place a small piece of scotch tape on the other side so the tag doesn't fall off. If you are going to bother with taging your cords you don't need all the little tags sitting on the floor!

For most people underneath the kitchen sink is well - a MESS! I saw this and thought this was a fantastic idea!

Use a tension rod to hang your spray cleaner bottles. Then you can use the floor of your cabinet to store other cleaning items - brushes, sponges, silver cleaner and other supplies that don't have a spray attachment.

These are just a few organization ideas. Let me know what you think!

Organizing our House :: Mudroom Closet

Have I said lately that I LOVE our new house?

Well I do!

One of the things I like most is that it is pretty much a blank slate when it comes to organizing it. Although, that is one of the drawbacks too. Having a blank canvas with so many organizing options out there to choose from makes decisions tough for what you want to do. Yes, my husband teases me that I am a bit anal and maybe a tad bit OCD when it comes to organizing...my good friends do too. *giggle*

I've come to the conclusion you need to LIVE in a house for awhile before you start organizing different areas because as you live in your house each room starts to take on it's own function and purpose. Yes, the purpose of some rooms will change and evolve over time but then it's just a re-do and you change it out to serve the new purpose.

Our mudroom closet has become well a dumping ground for many things. If we didn't know where to put it we put the item in there. In the 8 months we've lived here this large walk-in closet has become a pit.  A rather embarassing close the door when people are here pit. No, I'm not ALWAYS organized! 

So today I pulled all the stuff out of there that no longer needed to be in there....

• Elaina's baby bathtub. (She's now big enough for the inflatable duck tub so no more baths in the kitchen for little Miss E.)
• The plate rack I've been meaning to install in the kitchen in the BIG BOX. This can go in the basement
• Empty boxes
• Yoga mat
• Many....many...do I dare say TOO MANY pairs of shoes.

What I would like to put in this approximately 6'x10' walk-in closet? A variety of "stuff":

• All of our coats for all seasons + hats, mittens, scarves, gloves, baseball caps etc.
• Various shoes & boots that do not need to be stored in bedroom closets
• Vacuum and canister vacuum
• Brooms, mops, floor dusters, etc.
• Buckets
• Cleaning cloths, sponges, extra rolls of paper towels, TP for downstairs bath
• All cleaning supplies & cleansers - by pulling them out from under the kitchen sink and placing them on a high shelf in the closet negates the issue of childproofing AND the mess under the kitchen sink. 
• Reusable shopping bagsn + extra paper bags/plastic shopping bags
• Step stool
• Pool/beach towels (eventually these could be stored on a shelf in the garage...but that's another organizing post...*giggle*
• Bags/backpacks

I don't need the expensive wood lockers and seat because we have a large bench just outside the service door to the garage and there is a door to this space. Maybe I'll change my mind in another 10 years (see above - reference for 're-doing' a space over time *wink*) but for now the wire storage shelves and such will do the trick.  So this space has turned into a 'project'. 

Things we'll need to improve the organization:

• Two more wire shelves to add above existing shelving/coat racks - might need a third one on the long side of the closet
• Floor shoe racks with space to accomodate snow boots and raised slightly off the floor so we do not cover the floor register.
• Hangers for brooms, mops, floor dusters etc.
• Hooks for backpacks and bags.
• Additional 'low shelving' (currently using a small free standing 3-shelf wire shelf - works just fine.) 

So now comes the fun - finding the 'gadgets' and such to create the storage and organization solutions! Off to Ikea, the Container Store, and Home Depot online to search some options out.

Returning to Work

Well I just completed my first full week of work this week after my 12-week maternity leave.

How did it go?

On Wednesday morning I wanted to call it a week and stay in bed and just not go.  I was so exhausted!  But I got up and went to work. Can't call in sick when it is your first full week back to work. I just needed to push through the exhaustion and do it. So I treated myself to a Caribou on Wednesday morning as I walked through the St. Paul skyways to my office building.  I had a small dark chocolate, raspberry, almond mocha, skim milk and no whip.  The baristas messed up my order they gave me a large instead. OOPS! Maybe they took one look at me and thought, 'man that girl needs more caffeine if she's going to make it through the day!' *giggle* Although I didn't need all those extra calories...the difference in calories and fat between a small and large mocha is 203 calories and 19 grams of fat! At least I didn't finish it. I drank half of it, got busy and then it got cold. Yes I could have warmed it up in the microwave. But that's OK, like I said I didn't need all those extra calories and fat. YIKES! 

The work part is the easy part.  It's figuring out how to get all the other things done around home. This past week I let the laundry go, cleaning the house and all the things I generally try to keep up with. I essentially got up, went to work, came home, made dinner, nursed Elaina, spent some time with Zach, Elaina and Dave, then vegged in front of the TV, nursed Elaina then put her to bed, then off to dreamland for me. (Dave was super dad and cleaned up the kitchen and did the Zach bedtime routine.)

I know I will be less tired with time. I also need to be a bit more diligent with my bedtime and be IN bed no later than 10pm. A hard thing to do for a nightowl like me!

To make things easier I picked up some Dish and Dash meals from Let's Dish this week. So for the remainder of this month we don't need to think - "what are we having for dinner?" they are all made and ready to go.  All of our wholesome meals are all prepped and ready to be cooked!  I've planned out our dinner menu for the remainder of February. You can go to Let's Dish and dish the meals yourself. Or you can cheat like I did and pay for Dish and Dash - where the great folks at Let's Dish prep your meals for you and you just have to swing by and pick them up! Pretty slick huh? I had a coupon so I saved on the dishing fee! (coupon code is 2011 if you want to save too!) So what meals did we get?

Let's Dish meals we now have in our freezer:

1. Buffalo Chicken with Blue Cheese Mashed Potatoes
2. Chicken Parmigiana
3. Chicken Teriyaki with Cashew Pinapple Rice
4. Crunchy Onion Chicken with Chili Roasted Potatoes
5. Bangkok Beef and Basil Stir Fry
6. Beef Tips with Barley and Mushrooms
7. Mozzarella Stuffed Italian Meatloaves  [x 2 I'm getting two of these!]
8. Honey-Dijon Pork Chops with Green Beans
9. Paella
10. Mexican Pork Wraps
11. French Dips

I had them divide all of our meals in two so we received two 3-serving meals instead of one 6-serving meal. They don't recommend splitting the crock pot meals so the Mexican pork wraps and french dips I kept as 6-serving meals. So we now have 20 prepared meals in our freezer! For those of you using Weight Watchers Let's Dish works out the points for each meal as well. Hey - I think that's pretty convenient! Most of the dishes even come with a side dish!  All we need to do is add a vegetable or a salad for most nights! I even created a menu for the entire month so we don't have to even think! I uploaded my February menu if you'd like to see how I organized our month:  Download Weekly Menu Planner. The March Let's dish menu looks awesome too! I may have to dish and Dash again for March! I have a another coupon code: DashAgain for 50% off the assembly fee - just need to dish before March 18!  I'll wait and see what coupons I get in the mail I may just go to the store and dish up my own meals for March.  Anyone want to have a dishing party near the end of February at the Woodbury Let's Dish? If so, let me know!

Another thing that made it hard this week was Elaina has already gotten sick.  She came down with pink eye this week. She also now has a little cough.  We have drugs for the pink eye and she is pretty much over that. But the cough is most likely a virus she'll need to work through. Poor baby! Dave stayed home with her on Thursday. I was hoping she wouldn't get sick so quickly because her class size is so small, only six babies, and all the babies are not mobile. Once they start crawling and moving they move the babies up to another class. So that really helps with preventing the transfer of germs. But apparently, it doesn't. Oh well. She has to get sick eventually. I was just hoping it would have been after I had been at work for a few weeks.

Elaina is doing well at daycare. They sent us an email like they did for Zach about Elaina's first day. I'll post the email and photos in a separate post all about Elaina. I didn't expect it to be rough for Elaina as she's young and doesn't have the separation anxiety yet. She's happy to see her teachers and ther other babies in her class.

One of the best parts of my return to work is I have a new boss.  I do need to say my old boss was AWESOME and I am going to miss working with him. But it is nice to return to work after being gone for three months to a new role. I get to pick and start something new and I don't need to do all sorts of catch up. Well of course there is ALWAYS some catch up - organizational changes and where people are now and so forth. But my new role in Marketing is fun and my team is GREAT!

Well I can't blog ALL day - I have to get caught up on laundry and get some cleaning done around the house. Can't be a lazy day all day...humm...maybe I'll nurse Elaina, then put some laundry in and enjoy a nice soaking in the tub while it washes and the boys are out running errands. Sounds like a plan to me!

Organizing our House

So I've been wondering how to organize our back entry way off of the garage.  We have a large bench that tends to collect items of random 'stuff'.  I'm already discovering that I do NOT like the bench covered from end to end with STUFF.  It is nice if you can actually SIT DOWN on it. But with all the random hats, mittens, my purse, Elaina's car seat bucket, diaper bag...you get the idea.

I have been thinking I wanted baskets to tuck under the bench to put the stuff into. Then I had the bright idea I wanted rolling wicker baskets. I know I had seen them once before so I started my internet search. Pottery Barn Kids was the store that had them before but they discontinued them LONG ago. Bummer!  So I continued my search but to no avail.

However, today I got to thinking. I really should have the baskets LABELED otherwise the organization will go right out the window because it will take you forever to find what you are looking for.

AH-HA!

PBK has personalized baskets! So back to the internet I went. I thought I wanted wicker baskets with liners but then I found these  canvas buckets. Not only can I personalize each canvas bucket with Zach & Elaina's names they are machine washable! BONUS!

My only concern is whether or not they will fit under our bench. The website has two different dimensions listed for the buckets. DUH! I can call the PBK store at the Galleria...

Okay I called - they are 10.5 inches tall so they will fit very nicely under my bench which has a 14-inch tall opening. Yeah!!

Because is it JANUARY all storage and organization is on sale EVERYWHERE including PBK. So these are even ON SALE right now! Can't beat that!! 

Why do I want to store their hats, mittens and such under the bench? So they can reach them! I have bins for scarves, stocking hats, mittens, and baseball caps on a shelf in the back hallway but it is too high for the kids to reach. If I create storage LOW that they can reach they can put thier own stuff away.  No excuses! They do have girly pink canvas buckets too; but I think I'll get two chocolate as those will look better in the back hallway.

Hey PBK has personalization preview! Check it out! This is what they will look like! I'll let these sit in my PBK online cart overnight. Sometimes PBK will send you an extra 10% off to 'push' you to make that order.

I also saw this on Crate&Barrel today

We have a SMALL laundry room in our new house and I've been looking for a solution to store dirty clothes IN the laundry room that doesn't take up much room. I think this may be it! Only thing it is missing is wheels. *sigh* However, I'm hoping that this stays IN the laundry room.  This hamper is only $19.95. Hummm...I think I even have a Crate&Barrel gift card too. Well I'll have to measure and think about it.

I saw these totes on C&B today as well and they inspired me that I wanted to accent the white in our our office with some green. Doesn't it look fresh and fun?  There is also this clock that I LOVE that is also this fun green color. But I can only get that if Valerie has her fundraising party with her mom.

C&B also had this fun orange color as well. But I think I'll have an easier time finding green accessories and fun stuff than orange.  Although...that makes orange a challenge then. Hummm....

Okay...enough for today folks.